time limit for user input

is there a way to give a user let's say 10 seconds to enter something in?

I looked at what's in ctime and all i can do right now is just pause things for x amount of seconds.

if like to have something where a loop starts counting down and then breaks once the user enters something. If they don't answer and the timer runs out, I can record that as a bool or something.

any ideas???

Can't be done easily.

You will have to use third party libraries, and I am not sure if you can do it even then. On the console at least.

As you seem to be on Linux, look at ncurses.

This question already been asked in the past. I gave this code (C) as an example, once:

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#include <time.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>

const unsigned int MAX_TIME = 5;

enum
{
    OK = 0,
    TOO_SLOW
} result;

void sig_handler(int sig_num)
{
    if (sig_num == SIGCHLD)
    {
        result = OK;
    }

    else if (sig_num == SIGALRM)
    {
        result = TOO_SLOW;
    }
}

int main()
{
    pid_t chld_process;

    struct sigaction sa;

    int shm_id;
    void *data;

    assert((shm_id = shmget(IPC_PRIVATE, sizeof(int), 0600 | IPC_CREAT)) != -1);
    assert((data = shmat(shm_id, NULL, 0)) != (void*) -1);

    sa.sa_handler = sig_handler;
    sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
    sa.sa_flags = 0;
    assert(sigaction(SIGALRM, &sa, NULL) != -1);
    assert(sigaction(SIGCHLD, &sa, NULL) != -1);

    printf("Enter a number: ");
    fflush(stdout);

    assert((chld_process = fork()) != -1);
    if (chld_process == 0)
    {
        scanf("%d", (int*) data);
        shmdt(data);
        exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
    }

    alarm(MAX_TIME);
    pause();
    alarm(0);

    if (result == OK)
    {
        printf("Thanks for %d\n", * (int*) data);
    }

    else
    {
        kill(chld_process, SIGINT);
        printf("\nToo slow... .\n");
    }

    shmdt(data);

    return 0;
}

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I'm quite sure it's not the best way to do it, I did it that way because I though it could work and indeed, it worked. The code ask for a number, and you have only MAX_TIME seconds to enter it. It uses signals, shared memory segments and process creation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Salem

As you seem to be on Linux, look at ncurses.

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i may throw together a ncurses example in a little while.